The coach-to-quarterback radio system could soon be going the way of the Tyrannosaurus Rex (and/or the Rocky Mountain News), if a technological advancement to be used this year by the UFL catches on.
Jeff Darlington of the Miami Herald takes a look at a new system for sending plays from the head coach to the quarterback.
From the sidelines, the coach presses a button, which then sends an encrypted (except in Foxborough) message to the quarterback’s wrist band.
The wrist band then displays the play to be called.
The device, called the ID Coach (the name is nearly as lame as “Twitter”) has been invented by the Isaac Daniel Group, and it’ll be used by the fledgling UFL.
‘To be honest, I thought it was going to be a total gimmick when I heard about it,’' UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue told Darlington. “So when we went in there with our coaches, we were blown away. We thought it was an incredible concept.’'
So do we.
Though the Luddites who still use typewriters and turntables might opt to craft manifestos aimed at the evils of Maddenizing the NFL, the Rubicon was crossed years ago, when coaches began to usurp from quarterbacks the function of calling plays. So regardless of whether the play is shuttled from the sidelines via a player or by hand signals or by radio or by two tin cans with a taut string or by mental telepathy, the essence of the game -- i.e., the coach calls the plays, not the quarterback -- won’t change.
If there’s a way to do it more efficiently, then the UFL, the NFL, and even college football should embrace it.